Tiananmen Square Protests – level 3

10-06-2019 15:00

This year is the 30th anniversary of the student-led 1989 Tiananmen Square protests which called for democracy, human rights, and an end to corruption in China.

Ahead of the anniversary, China’s defence minister said that the violent response to the protests was the right move, arguing that it helped bring ‘stability’ to the country during a politically turbulent time. It is not known how many were injured and wounded in the crackdown exactly, but people say that the number of dead range from several hundred to several thousand people.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, called the actions of the protesters ‘heroic’ and criticised China’s history of human rights abuses. One of the examples that he gave was China’s recent arrests of over 1 million Muslims.

Difficult words: turbulent (very unstable), crackdown (repression, serious action against something), Secretary of State (a person in the government who represents the USA in international things), abuse (an act of not respecting the human rights).

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